Annual Christmas event could move to Gateway

Barry L. Paschal

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 1:19 PM

Christmas Made in the South could be the next annual Augusta event to migrate to Columbia County.

Community and Leisure Services Division Director Barry Smith told commissioners Tuesday during the meeting of the Community and Emergency Services Committee meeting that organizers of the annual Christmas-themed craft show have indicated they want to move the event from James Brown Arena to the county's exhibition hall at the Gateway center near Grovetown.

"He won't make it this year, but Christmas Made in the South will be at the Gateway next year" in 2014, Smith said.

The exhibition hall currently is under construction, with completion expected in May.

Calls to Carolina Shows Inc., the producer of Christmas Made in the South, were not immediately returned.

If the event moves, it would be the fourth major annual event to leave Augusta for a Columbia County site, after Banjo-B-Que, Thunder Over Augusta and the recently announced move of the Rock Fore! Dough concert to the Lady Antebellum Pavilion from the First Tee site on Damascus Road.

A new Family Y will be a tenant of a portion of the facility, with the remainder available for events. County officials haven't yet finalized rental fees or chosen a name for the $7.3 million facility, but say they expect it to be the home of several annual events that have outgrown Savannah Rapids Pavilion.

The largest room at Savannah Rapids is less than half the size of the 15,000-square-foot main exhibition hall at the Gateway, said Sandy Bonner, manager of the county's Rentals and Facilities Department. That doesn't include adjacent meeting rooms and a large "pre-function" lobby area.

According to the Website for James Brown Arena, that facility's main floor covers 23,00 square feet.

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